ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 86, 26 May 1843, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Colonist. Sir, —l regret to acquaint you that the Columbine schooner is stranded inside the entrance of the Wanganui. This little vessel lately came from the north, chartered by the Rev. Mr. Taylor. ' Captain Stretton, unacquainted with the coast, and n’Ot seeing any landmarks, went to Kapiti, and there taking'a jsilot, entered our river in safety. On Friday he cleared for Port Nicholson, and was being towed out by some Maories, when the vessel touched bn the South’ Spit ; the natives, scared by the mishap, cast off the tow-line, pulled ashore, and made off, leaving the captain comparatively helpless, his own small boat not being available. W-ith an ebbing tide and a dead calm, and the vessel being of an exceedingly sharp build, she soon became fixed; succeeding tides banked up the sand, and she now Ties bedded to her copper. The local Magistrates were not &Ware of any peril to the vessel until late on : Saturday night, and then only from rumor. On Sunday they invited the co-operation of the inhabitants, in an attempt to get lifer afloat, which was readily granted, and several boats went down, but on arrival, they found the captain of opinion that nfothing effectual could be done. In a recent communication to your paper, I alluded to the accessibility of our river, “ if the channel was buoyed,” &c. The present casualty has arisen solely from this want, and I press this upon your attention, that no inconsistency may appear between my opinion and the fact. I cannot too importunately urge the necessity of marking the channel. I maybe told that it is a Government concern, but in my opinion, circumstances modify this political axiom. I consider that the New Zealand Company are peculiarly called upon to do it. They form settlements far removed one from the other, each of which must for some years be the mere nucleus of an effective population. -Is it reasonable to expect that an infant colonial government, without internal resources, ’and supported by the mother country, can co-existently establish here and there and every where, an array of salaried officers for the administration of justice, the collection of revenue, and also direct the execution of public works ? I, for one, do not expect it. When Wanganui was decided upon as the locale of the second'series landholders, it became a paramount obligation on the Company to facilitate the communication between it and the “ First and Principal Settlement.” This was neither a difficult nor an expensive undertaking. The erection of a couple of lofty spars, the anchoring of a few empty hogsheads, would have made the sea-approach infinitely less hazardous, saved much property, and nullified that imaginary.obstacle, the “Wanganui bar.” The access by land was equally facile: there was the natural hard beach road, interrupted but by rivers. How many of the married emigrants, for the use of as much land as would feed a ’horse and cpw, and perhaps a little outfit, would gladly have undertaken to keep at each of the f#ur principal rivers a cattle boat, a cart, and “ entertainment for man and horse!” These facilities would have created intercourse. We should, ere'now, have had a semi-weekly post, and instead of being dependent, as we have been for the past two years, on the all-but-charice opportunities of getting our letters and papers, we should look for their arrival as regularly as if we were at St. Martin’s-le-Grand.

So imperative is the necessity for the beacons anti buoys, that I am persuaded there is not an able inhabitant in Wanganui that would not give a portion of his time and labor to their erection—their purses I meddle not with, as the Company have already dipped therein. I have seen the readiness with which they aid in any measure for the general good : let competent direction be given, and we will not be “ listless” to the call, nor indolent in the vocation. K. Wanganui, May 15, 1843.